Biological Analogies Break Down 69 



to a combat between a lion and a bull or even to a 

 combat between two lions. The combat between 

 two individuals (the lion and the bull for example) 

 remains in the domain of zoology. The combat 

 between the Russians and the Japanese enters 

 into the social domain, which presupposes the 

 inter-action of an enormous number of facts — 

 psychological, economical, political, and intellect- 

 ual. Spencer's phrase ' ' similarly with social organ- 

 isms" constitutes a blind leap from the biological 

 to the sociological realm which is not justified by 

 any logic. 



But collective combats do take place in the 

 animal kingdom, say the "social Darwinists," 

 and these combats have contributed to the ad- 

 vancement of the species. It is known that the 

 ants wage war in good and due form. Since the 

 ants wage war, collective combat is a fact of 

 Nature, runs the argument, and it is useless to try 

 to abolish war between human collectivities. In 

 fact, it is worse than useless ; it would be disastrous 

 to civilization. So the popular advocates of the 

 philosophy of force, following the sociologists, 

 base their case on these "biological laws" and 

 apply it to the modern relations between human 

 collectivities. Thus Bernhardi says: 



The knowledge, therefore, that war depends on 

 biological laws leads to the conclusion that every 

 attempt to exclude it from international relations 

 must be demonstrably untenable. But it is not only 



